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When Banner Gateway Medical Center opened in September 2007, it revealed the future of health care. Banner Gateway, which has received architectural awards, is designed to heal, with soothing waterfalls and light-filled areas. Patients order their meals through room service and have them served on plates and not trays. The hospital has only private rooms with all medical equipment housed in cabinets to provide a more tranquil atmosphere. It is high-tech as well as soothing.

There are no paper charts; all patient records are on computers, easily accessible to physicians and staff, which makes for a smoother and safer patient experience. Banner Estrella Medical Center was the first Banner Health hospital to use this innovative combination of a healing atmosphere and technology to improve care and patient safety.

Banner Gateway was built to replace Banner Mesa Medical Center, which closed in 2007. Closing a hospital, however, doesn’t mean leaving a neighborhood. Banner Health will turn the nine-story building into offices and the site of one of the country’s largest simulation education and training centers. Banner Health’s decision to stay and renovate was widely praised by Mesa leaders as being vital to the area’s future.

Building new facilities also can lead to community building. When Page Hospital in Arizona opened its Emergency department, it asked that a Navajo Medicine Man bless the new space, as a sign of respect for the area’s large Native American population. The Medicine Man said special prayers for those who give care and those who seek it.

As part of our nonprofit mission, we are reinvesting our resources into the construction of new hospitals and major expansions and renovations. By the end of 2010, we will have finished nearly 700 new patient rooms and be building many more to meet patient needs.

Our current and recently concluded projects include:

� Banner Children’s Hospital at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona: A six-story pediatric-only tower that will be completed in 2009 with 120 beds for pediatric care. It is part of a $328 million expansion project at Banner Desert Medical Center.

� Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, Arizona: A 200-bed patient tower is expected to be completed by 2009. The extra space will allow the hospital to focus on its emergence as a nearly 600-bed tertiary facility.

� Banner Ironwood in Pinal County, Arizona: After its first phase of construction, Banner Ironwood will have a $128 million fourstory, 86-bed patient tower. Banner expects to open the hospital with 24 ro 36 beds in early 2010, but it could grow quickly as the community expands.

� Banner Baywood Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona: A new $94 million seven-story patient tower added 123 beds.

� McKee Medical Center in Loveland, Colorado: A new Emergency department and stateof-the-art imaging technology were part of a recent $21 million renovation.

� Platte County Memorial Hospital in Wheatland, Wyoming: The hospital has finished a $16 million renovation project to replace its Inpatient Wing, Surgical Suite and Diagnostic Imaging departments. The hospital’s Emergency department and Laboratory also were renovated.

� Community Hospital in Torrington, Wyoming: Banner Health has committed $8.9 million to expand the hospital’s Emergency department and other areas.

We are always looking at ways to partner with physicians so that we can grow along with our communities.

In northern Colorado, our partnerships with providers, large and small, primary care and specialists, have culminated in creating Banner Medical Clinics. In Colorado, we also have partnered with physicians to build the CardioVascular Institute of Northern Colorado.

In Arizona, we are expanding the Banner Medical Group to offer primary care and specialist care throughout the growing Phoenix metropolitan area. We also have partnered with another large clinic to create the Banner Arizona Medical Clinic, which has more than 100 physicians.

In Alaska, Tanana Valley Clinic, which has 30 physicians and 15 midlevel practitioners, also recently became a Banner physician group.